SpeedZone Showoff

Cars, girls, go-karts (girls), video games (girls)—somebody pinch me. Am I in heaven? Nope, I’m in the City of Industry, California, site of Speedzone and the latest Import Showoff. After a long break from a successful Import Showoff 2000, Ken Miyoshi and staff unveiled an extraordinary event down in City of Industry. First, they introduced Ms. Import Showoff 2001, the beautiful Flo Jalin. (If you’re reading this Flo, I’m single. And well groomed.) For inspiration, Miyoshi upped the ante with a trip to Hawaii for Import Showoff Auto and EXC winners and their cars. Hawaii, say “aloha” to the two California Skylines.

California’s top crews showed up to duke it out for the Team Showoff and Team Represent titles. Bomex USA even threw in $3,000 of Bomex products to give away to the winning teams. Team Techna of Torrance, California, brought out an arsenal of 16 show cars and snatched the Team Represent trophy. Kyosho Racing took home awards for Girl Racer Showoff, Prelude Showoff, Nissan Class, Exotic Class, and Import Showoff Auto; leaving them as first pick for the Team Showoff award. Art ’n’ Motion came out strong, as usual, with an exquisite variety of cars. Formula One drove all the way from San Diego to flex their colorful lineup of show cars.

From the 60 freeway, vendor tents from Blitz North America, Raceline Development, Meguiar’s, and Pacific Rim could be seen providing shelter to those desperately seeking shade from the glaring sun. Maximum parking capacity was limited to 200 cars, and Mainstream had no problem filling those spaces.

Throughout the day, Speed Zone’s facilities were fully open for everyone to enjoy. The friendly local police officers were on duty, controlling traffic and keeping the crowd safe. The only trouble I had was with the security guard who hassled me for 30 minutes about how he could perform a full body cavity search on me (I always seem to have trouble with security guards). With more events scheduled for the rest of the year, Miyoshi continues to prove that Showoff is still standing strong as the originator of import car shows.